One of my friends has been using her facebook account almost exclusively to sell products, and she posts some kind of "ad"as a status update several times a day. I've hidden her from my feed and did a little checking about the terms of service, and it appears that we aren't supposed to be using our personal timelines to sell products but we are allowed to have a separate "page" for selling of products and services.

I'd like to say something to my friend about it, but I am concerned about causing a confrontation. I'd appreciate any ideas about if I should say anything first of all and what I could say if I do proceed with giving her a head's up. I don't want to just defreind or report her.

Why not defriend her? Obviously she doesn't care what her friends think about being spammed, since she obviously must know it's annoying but she does it anyway. Reporting her will either do nothing or get her whole account closed down, which would give you more flack. Just block or defriend her and if anyone asks you about it later, you can be honest - you got sick of being spammed.

Can you be a bit P/A and private message her, saying something like: "Hi, I noticed that I'm getting a lot of your business posts on my facebook feed. I really only like to get regular status updates from my friends, so I figured I must have the wrong account. Could you send me a friend request from your personal account? And don't be surprised when I defriend your business account; nothing personal, but I just want to keep the friends separate from the business relationships."

Then you put her on notice that a) you don't appreciate the 'business' emails, b) you only expect personal status updates, and c) (if she reads between the lines) not everyone appreciates her blurring the lines between friend and potential customer.

You already have the power to limit what you see of her feed and the ultimate power to see nothing at all.

It's really her business what she posts on her page. And its pretty hypocriitical of FB to actualy have a rule that says you can't advertise on your own page considering how much they clog up the feed with ads. And there is no way to block those from appeareing at least once!

I don't think its worth reporting her page either unless you really don't want her as a friend anymore.

I think this is one of those things that you really dont need to make your business. You dont want to see it, so set your settings accordingly.

For reasons of my own, I neither want to defriend or block her, as I stated in my OP. My question is how do I approach her about this (or if I even should).

To be honest, I am not comfortable with the P/A approach. I would rather say something along the lines of "You may not have known this, but using your personal timeline to sell a product violates facebook's TOS. You're supposed to have a separate page for that." But I don't know how best to word it.

Instead of focusing on the negative (she's breaking the rules) try pointing out that having a product or business page is a better idea - its easier and quicker to gather "likes" then friends, it easier for her and her friends & family to "share" the business page, she can "highlight" posts, and if she wants FB offers reasonably priced advertizement packages to build her audience. Yes it would take a small amount of time and effort to transition, but ultimately its a better tool and more professional to use the correct type of page. It will, on her end (from a log-in perspective) be linked to her main page, so its just as easy to use, even from a smart phone.(edited to correct major phone posting related errors)

Would you be comfortable waiting until she mentions something you 'should have' known from her updates, and sheepishly telling her you'd blocked her feed because you were getting so many ads from her? I like GrammarNerd's approach, too.

I wouldn't make the TOS argument because then you open the discussion to young children, pets, and other violations.

Instead of focusing on the negative (she's breaking the rules) try pointing out that having a product or business page is a better idea - its easier and quicker to gather "likes" then friends, it easier for her and her friends & family to "share" the business page, she can "highlight" posts, and if she wants FB offers reasonably priced advertizement packages to build her audience. Yes it would take a small amount of time and effort to transition, but ultimately its a better tool and more professional to use the correct type of page. It will, on her end (from a log-in perspective) be linked to her main page, so its just as easy to use, even from a smart phone.(edited to correct major phone posting related errors)

Facebook's business pages are kind of ridiculous right now - you have to pay extra money for every post you want people to see - even if they already follow your page! And it's not chump change, either - several bucks just for a small audience, up to several hundred (per post) if you have more followers. It's not worth the effort, frankly.

Instead of focusing on the negative (she's breaking the rules) try pointing out that having a product or business page is a better idea - its easier and quicker to gather "likes" then friends, it easier for her and her friends & family to "share" the business page, she can "highlight" posts, and if she wants FB offers reasonably priced advertizement packages to build her audience. Yes it would take a small amount of time and effort to transition, but ultimately its a better tool and more professional to use the correct type of page. It will, on her end (from a log-in perspective) be linked to her main page, so its just as easy to use, even from a smart phone.(edited to correct major phone posting related errors)

Facebook's business pages are kind of ridiculous right now - you have to pay extra money for every post you want people to see - even if they already follow your page! And it's not chump change, either - several bucks just for a small audience, up to several hundred (per post) if you have more followers. It's not worth the effort, frankly.

I run and "organization" page and its totally free. My DH runs a band page, and again his is totally free. And lots of artists I know have fan pages that are free for them to run. And while the majority of posts on either of our pages is not selling, we do occasionally announce stuff for sale. So its possible to do it... she might still have to bend some rules and not call it a "business" I guess, but its still the more appropriate venue.

You already have the power to limit what you see of her feed and the ultimate power to see nothing at all.

It's really her business what she posts on her page. And its pretty hypocriitical of FB to actualy have a rule that says you can't advertise on your own page considering how much they clog up the feed with ads. And there is no way to block those from appeareing at least once!

I don't think its worth reporting her page either unless you really don't want her as a friend anymore.

I think this is one of those things that you really dont need to make your business. You dont want to see it, so set your settings accordingly.

This. Absolutely.

There are a lot of things I don't like reading on my Newfeed. But that's why there's an option of blocking people's posts. You don't have to defriend someone, but you don't have to see their posts, either. I have several people in that category right now. There are some people whose posts I need a break from, but I don't want to lose them as a friend. Easy enough to take a quick break from them without announcing it or being obvious. Just a quiet "hide" and that's it.

You don't have to be the FB police and report it. You've done exactly what you need to do. Blocked the posts you're not keen on seeing and going on with your day. That's all you need to do.